timbo, that vignette reminds me of a story told by one of my engineering professors, some fifty years ago. My machine-design prof. He'd spent a summer working at one of the major manufacturers of light bulbs. At the end the summer, his boss visited as an exit interview. Asked if he had any questions, he did have one: He'd noticed two or three rather young guys who never seemed to do any work. Always just sat around their offices.

"Oh," said the boss, "We hired them to think." (About new products, of course, or improvements in the machinery.)